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Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis – Britain's Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis for the first time on Thursday, April 3, at the Vatican.

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Photos:Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis

Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis – The Queen is welcomed by Archbishop Francesco Canalini at the Ciampino airport near Rome on April 3.

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Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis – For her visit to Italy, the Queen was accompanied by her husband, Prince Phillip, left. They were greeted by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and his wife, Clio, at the presidential palace in Rome.

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Photos:Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis

Queen Elizabeth II meets Pope Francis – The Queen talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The Queen was originally due to travel to Italy last year, but the visit was postponed because of illness.

According to Vatican Radio, Thursday's audience marked the queen's seventh encounter with a pontiff and the fifth different pope she has met. Besides trips to Rome, she also welcomed Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, on their respective visits to Britain.

Her first papal encounter was with Pope Pius in 1951, the year before she ascended the throne, the broadcaster said.

The Queen's latest visit to Italy, at the invitation of Napolitano, was initially planned last year but was postponed because of illness.

Britain's ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker, told Vatican Radio the Queen had decided to take advantage of the rescheduled trip to meet Pope Francis.

"If you look back in terms of Queen Elizabeth's reign, it is extraordinary how far the relationship between Britain and the Holy See, and between the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church, has developed since 1952 when she became queen," he said.

A key aspect of that has been her several encounters with different popes over the years, Baker said.

Francis, who's from Argentina, was elected pope in March of last year after Benedict took the almost unprecedented step of resigning from the papacy.

Britain and Argentina have a sometimes testy relationship, thanks to an unresolved dispute over the Falkland Islands. The two countries went to war over the South Atlantic territory in 1982 after the then-military government in Argentina landed troops on the islands, which Argentinians call Las Malvinas.